Women Claim China Government Forced Them to Abort
A Christian human-rights advocacy group claims women in China’s Guangxi Province are being forced to abort their pregnancies in a crackdown of the nation’s family planning laws that allow couples to have only one child.
China Aid Association reported that at least 40 women say they were forcibly taken to a hospital and given injections that induced labor.
Wei Linrong, whose husband leads a house church in the province, said she was seven months pregnant with the couple’s second child when officials told her she must abort. She told China Aid that when she and her husband refused, officials forcibly took her to Youjiang District People’s Hospital of Baise City and performed an abortion.
“The nurses dealt with the body like it was rubbish,” Wei told National Public Radio (NPR). “They wrapped it up in a black plastic bag and threw it in the trash.”
He Caigan was nine months pregnant with her first child when she was given an abortion-inducing injection the following day, NPR reported. The 19-year-old said she was forced to abort because she was unmarried and not old enough to get married.
Chinese officials said they were not aware of the forced abortions. But a family planning official in Baise who is surnamed Nong said this type of treatment would be illegal. And although many of the forced abortions occurred recently, he said an investigation had already taken place and no problems had been found.
“We were very surprised to hear of these accusations, but our investigation concluded some individuals who were dissatisfied with our family planning policies were fabricating stories,” Nong told NPR. “These facts simply don’t exist. We really love and care for women here.”
China Aid reported that a woman in Shandong province who unintentionally became pregnant with her second child six months ago is also being pressured to abort.
